The London Guantánamo has been campaigning since 2006 for the return of all British residents from the Guantánamo Bay prison camp, the release of all prisoners, the closure of this prison and other similar prisons and an end to the practice of extraordinary rendition. Human rights for all.

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

The first was Afghan prisoner Karim Bostan, 46, on 3 May. Bostan has
been held at Guantánamo since 2003 and has never been charged or tried. His
lawyer claims he would just like to return to his family and business in
Afghanistan whereas the US military claims he might have led an Al Qaeda cell
in an attack in Khost in 2003. No evidence of this has ever been produced. The
US military has nonetheless found him to be highly compliant and cooperative
while held at Guantánamo but he has provided no useful intelligence.

The next hearing was on 5 May for Yemeni Sanad Ali Yislam Al Kazimi, 46,
who was arrested in 2003 by the UAE authorities. The US claims he was a
bodyguard for Osama bin Laden and had joined an Al Qaeda cell in the UAE that
smuggled explosives. He has never been charged or tried.

On 10 May Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu, 42, the
only Kenyan national held at Guantánamo had his review hearing. He has been
held there since 2007. Accused of involvement in Al Qaeda operations in East
Africa, including bombings in Kenya in 2002, he was arrested by the Kenyan
authorities and handed over to the US. At Guantánamo, he has been highly
compliant and has served as a cook for other prisoners. He has never been
charged. His lawyers said that he would like to return home to his fishing and
diving business.

Yemeni prisoner Abd Al-Salam Al-Hilah, 48, had
his review hearing on 12 May. A businessman, due to his influence and links to
key tribal, political and intelligence figures in various Middle Eastern
countries, including the former Yemeni president, Al-Hilah’s continuing
detention is considered to relate more to his value as an intelligence asset
than as a threat. On a business trip in Egypt in 2002, he was kidnapped and
rendered to Afghanistan and arrived at Guantánamo in 2004.

Yemeni Muhammed Rajab Sadiq Abu Ghanim had
his review on 17 May. Another alleged Bin Laden bodyguard, he was detained and
sold to the US trying to escape to Pakistan in late 2001. He claims he was
working for a charity in Afghanistan, whereas the US claims he was part of a
terrorist organization. He has been held at Guantánamo since 2002 and the
allegations have never been proved or resulted in charges. He has been a
compliant prisoner and according to his lawyers the time he has spent in
Guantánamo has exposed him to American values and culture and given him a
greater appreciation of Americans.

39-year old Saudi Jabran al Qahtani had his
review hearing on 19 May. He was arrested by the Pakistani authorities and sold
to the US in 2002. An electrical engineer, the US claims he used his skills to
support terrorist organisations when he went to Afghanistan in 2001. His
lawyers claim he was young and naïve at the time. He had no prior military or
combat training. He has never been charged at Guantánamo.

On 24 May, 35-year old Algerian Said bin
Brahim bin Umran Bakush has his hearing. He was arrested along with Abu
Zubaydah in 2002. He has not shown a great interest in being released and has
asked not to be returned to Algeria, fearing arrest if he is returned there.

On 26 May, 43-year old Algerian Sufiyan Ibu
Muhammad Barhumi had his review hearing. According to the US military, he was radicalized
in London in the 1990s and then illegally fled to Afghanistan for weapons
training so he could go and fight in Chechnya. He claims that he only wanted to
fight in Chechnya and has no problem with the US. He wishes to return home to
his mother in Algeria.

Yemeni Shawqi Awad Balzuhair, 34, is the eighth prisoner to have his
review this month on 31 May. The US claims he is a low-level militant who has
offered little information even though he has been highly compliant at
Guantánamo.

Three more such review hearings are scheduled for the first half of
June.

Over the past month, only one prisoner has found out the result of his
status review: on 19 May, Afghan prisoner Obaidullah was
cleared for release. He was kidnapped from his home in Afghanistan in 2002. He has
never been charged or tried and it is not clear whether Afghanistan will make
efforts to repatriate its remaining prisoners at Guantánamo.

The Obama administration has reported that
up to two dozen prisoners – almost the total (28) currently cleared for release
are due to be transferred in the next two months, although none has been
cleared for actual release yet.

On 5 May, the first anniversary of former
prisoner Omar Khadr being released on bail – his first taste of some form of
freedom as an adult and since 2002 – he celebrated by having some of his bail
conditions removed or relaxed. In light of Khadr’s recent engagement to be
married, he had his nightly curfew removed and can change his permanent address
with one week’s notice to his bail supervisor. He also no longer needs court
permission to travel within Canada; he can do so with the approval of his bail
supervisor. The judge also “ruled that Khadr can have
unfettered contact with his mother when he travels to the Toronto area later
this month to spend time with his family. However, there are still restrictions
in place regarding contact with one of his sisters, who is currently being
detained in Turkey over issues with her visa.”

In a statement Khadr made to the court, he
wrote: “I have no anger towards anyone and I have been
getting on with my life. I am proud and happy to be a Canadian citizen living
in Canada.” In the statement, he said he had finished his exams to become an emergency
medical responder and is working towards certification; he is also close to
obtaining the equivalent of a high school diploma.

In the meantime, no progress has been made in
Khadr’s appeal case against his 2010 military commission conviction. Nonetheless,
on 24 May, Khadr lost a case in the US to have one judge removed from his
appeal case due to the fact that he is serving as a civilian judge in a
military commission review court but works as a civilian lawyer at the same time.
Khadr’s lawyer stated this was unconstitutional. The judge hearing this case refused
to consider the dismissal but said that it raised important questions that the
US government and Congress must consider about the appointment of civilian
judges in military cases.

A military nurse who was suspended from his
position after refusing to force feed hunger-striking prisoners at Guantánamo
has been allowed to return to work. The case took two years to resolve and he
is currently working at a navy facility in New England. There are currently a
handful of prisoners still on hunger strike.

Ahead of pre-trial hearings in the case of 5
men accused of involvement in the 9/11 attacks in New York in 2001, which
resumed on 30 May after a 3-month break, lawyers for key defendant Khalid
Shaikh Mohammed, on 11 May, demanded that the military judge and the entire
prosecution team be removed from the case as important classified evidence has
been destroyed. They also asked for the proceedings to be put on permanent hold
due to breaches of the constitutional rights of the defendants with respect to
the death penalty case against them.

At the current 5-day
hearing, which started on 30 May, 42 motions have been filed by the defence and
will focus on the treatment of the prisoners in secret CIA-run prisons around
the world. There is a possibility that two other prisoners, unrelated to the
case, may be called to testify about conditions in these prisons, including Abu
Zubaydah, who has not been seen since 2002. During the first day of the
hearing, one of the defendants asked for his entire defence team to be removed.

One of the defendants, Mustafa
al-Hawsawi, was allegedly tortured in Lithuania, which the Lithuanian
government denies. Its investigation into the country’s running of torture
facilities for the CIA has not been thorough. His lawyer in Lithuania has thus
filed a petition for him to be given victim status so that his lawyers can have
access to the case file. She has also requested the investigation to be expanded.
Another prisoner, Abu Zubaydah, has a case pending against Lithuania at the
European Court of Human Rights. He and another prisoner previously won a case
against Poland at the European Court of the torture they faced at a secret CIA
prison there in 2003.

Prior to the pre-trial
hearing, on 12 May, lawyers for another defendant, Ammar al-Baluchi,
requested that Juan Mendez, the UN’s special rapporteur on torture, be given
access to Camp 7, where he and other prisoners who were subjected to years of
abuse in CIA secret prisons, are held away from other prisoners and with limited
access to the outside world. Mendez has consistently demanded access to the
prisoners at Guantánamo Bay but has refused to take the ‘trip’ journalists get
excited about whereby they are permitted to view the prisoners like zoo
exhibits and without access to the prisoners and to be able to interview them.http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/12/guantanamo-camp-7-torture-ammar-al-baluchi-un

Another pre-trial hearing
was briefly held on 16-17 May in the case of Abd al-Hadi Al-Iraqi. The case has
now been set back until 11 July. During the hearing he told the court he wants
to be known by his real name: Nashwan al-Tamir, with his lawyers claiming that
the other names that have been used have been given to him erroneously. The
change of name caused some confusion in the court; his lawyers seemed to
suggest that the wrong name had been deliberately ascribed to accuse Al-Tamir
of offences possibly carried out by someone else with those names.

During the hearing, al-Tamir also maintained
his claim that he wants a civilian lawyer, which he has been denied, as he is
not facing the death penalty.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) lost
a lawsuit calling for the full release of the 2014 Senate Intelligence
Committee report into CIA torture. In December 2014, a redacted executive
summary of the report was released – 500 pages of the 6000 page document.

The judgment by the European Court of Human Rights ordering the Italian government
to pay compensation to rendition victim Abu Omar, who was snatched from the
streets of Milan in 2003 and rendered to torture in Egypt, is now final as the
authorities did not appeal the decision. In February 2016, the Court found
Italy guilty of having violated Omar’s human rights when it cooperated with the
rendition to torture and failed to provide him with adequate legal relief afterwards.

The May Shut
Guantánamo demonstration was on Thursday 5 May. The June demonstration is on 2 May
at 12-1pm outside the US Embassy and 1.15-2.15pm outside Speaker’s Corner, Hyde
Park, opposite Marble Arch and is a special demonstration in solidarity with
Mauritanian prisoner Mohamedou Ould Slahi where we will be reading from his
best-seller written inside Guantánamo, Guantánamo Diary as this date coincides with his periodic review
board hearing:

The LGC will have
details available very soon of its plans to mark International Day in Support
of Victims of Torture on the afternoon of Sunday 26 June. Please watch this
space!

The LGC
(@shutguantanamo) is continuing to hold weekly #GitmObama Twitter storms to
raise awareness about Guantánamo prisoners every Monday at 9pm BST. The pastebin
is available http://pastebin.com/zpx5F7ab
which is updated weekly with the latest information and tweets to raise
awareness about Guantánamo. Please join us online if you can!

Sunday, May 01, 2016

Over the past month, 11 prisoners have been
released from Guantánamo Bay, bringing the prisoner population down to 80. On 3
April, 2 Libyan prisoners were transferred to Senegal on humanitarian grounds.
Libya is one of several countries to which prisoners cannot be currently
repatriated. The two men, Omar Khalifa Mohammed Abu Bakr, 43, and Salem Abdul
Salem Ghereby, 55, were captured in Pakistan in late 2001 and sold to the US
military who took them to Guantánamo. Both men are alleged to have been members
of anti-Gaddafi militant groups in Libya, a regime overthrown by the US and its
allies in 2011. One of the men is crippled and is
missing a leg. The government of Senegal said that it accepted the men, who
have been held without charge or trial for over 14 years, on humanitarian
grounds.

On 16 April, 9
Yemeni nationals were transferred to Saudi Arabia, with the country accepting
non-nationals for the first time. Four of the men were born in Saudi Arabia to
Yemeni parents and all have family there. The men will attend a rehabilitation
programme for Saudi Islamists, which was also attended by Saudi returnees. The
nine men include Tariq Ba Odah, who had been cleared for release for over a
decade, and due to a sustained hunger strike weighed 74lb on release. The men
released are Mansoor Muhammed Ali Qatta, 34, Ahmed Kuman, 36, Abdul Rahman al
Qyati, 40, Sabri, all born in Saudi Arabia and Ahmed al Hikimi, 44, Abdul
Rahman Nasir, 36, Mohammed al Hamiri, 34, Tariq Ba Odah, 38, and Ali al Raimi,
33, all of whom have family members in Yemen but were born in Yemen. Nearly all
of the men were sold to the US military by the Northern Alliance or the
Pakistani military. None had ever faced charges and the youngest arrived at
Guantánamo as a teenager.

There are
currently 26 prisoners who have been cleared for release and officials say they
expect to transfer all of them by the end of the summer.

Four
prisoners came before periodic review board in April to decide whether or not
they could be cleared for release. The first was Afghan Obaidullah, who was
captured at his home in 2002. He was a teenager at the time. According to an
Amnesty International report http://www.amnestyusa.org/sites/default/files/amr510512013en.pdf
he was picked up on an incorrect report that he was a member of Al Qaeda. He
was captured just two days after the birth of his daughter and his lawyer
stated that he does not pose a risk to the US and only wishes to return home to
his family.

In the same week, Yemeni prisoner, Said Salih
Said Nashir, 46, had his case reviewed. Since his arrival at Guantánamo, he has
been largely compliant and peaceful and has earned the praise of teachers
leading courses he has attended during his imprisonment. His lawyer said that
he is prepared to undergo any rehabilitation or reintegration programme and looks
forward to getting on with his life and starting a family.

On 26 April, Yemeni Uthman Abdul Rahim
Mohammed Uthman, 36, came before the board. The US claimed he was one of Osama
Bin Laden’s many bodyguards and an Al Qaeda member, which he has always denied.
At Guantánamo, he has been largely compliant. His family lives in Saudi Arabia
and he would be interested in going into business if released.

Yemeni Bashir Nasir Ali al-Marwalah came before
the board on 28 April. He was arrested along with Said Salih Said Nashir in
Pakistan in 2002. In March, the board cleared another Yemeni national arrested
with them for release. His lawyer said that he expressed regret at having left
Yemen for Afghanistan and at the hearing it was revealed that the US has no
knowledge of any Al Qaeda or anti-US actions he was involved in planning.

In the same month, the board rejected the case made by Saifullah
Paracha, 68, the oldest prisoner at Guantánamo, in March for his freedom, citing
his past ties to Al Qaeda and declared him too dangerous to release. He has
never been charged with any crime and was arrested and rendered to torture by
the FBI in Bangkok, Thailand, after setting up a sting through an alleged
business meeting. His case will next be up for review in October.

The board also decided to continue the indefinite detention without
charge of Yemeni prisoner Sharqawi Abdu Ali Al Hajj, citing his former ties to
Al Qaeda leaders and stating that he “remains committed to engaging in violent acts against the
United States”. Al Hajj did not take part in his review and has thus been deemed
non-compliant.

At the end of March, the periodic review
board also decided not to clear Yemeni Suhayl al Sharabi, 39, for release, in
order “to protect against a continuing significant threat to the security of
the United States.”

It should be noted that this procedure is administrative and not legal
and none of the men who have had their status reviewed or determined have been
subject to trial.

LGC April demo

Following reports of a possible cancer
cluster, and related illnesses and deaths among military and military
commission staff at Camp Justice, where Guantánamo military commissions are
held, an initial report revealed by the Miami Herald lists a series of
health concerns “including the presence of mercury in a
building once used as detention center headquarters that years earlier function
as a dental clinic; formaldehyde in indoor air samples; excess
bromodichloromethane and chloroform in two showers; arsenic in soil samples on
the site where some work court personnel and temporary visitors are housed in a
tent city and adjoining trailer park, and PCBs in and around a ramshackle
hangar where journalists and troops work and attorneys brief the media.”

As a result, staff working on the commissions
– up to a possible 200 people –have been informed that they can continue to
work there but not spend the night, while further tests are carried
out, which are likely to be ongoing until the autumn.

Two weeks of hearings in the case of five prisoners allegedly linked to
the 9/11 attacks in 2001 were cancelled without reason by the judge.
Nonetheless military Judge Pohl issued a 17-page ruling on a motion brought by
defence lawyers in 2012 to exclude the death penalty for their clients. They
contended that comments by political leaders prejudiced the case against their
clients and led to the call for this penalty; the judge ruled that while such
comments have the potential to impact on the trial, Pentagon officials acted
without outside influence in authorising the death penalty in these cases. With
constant delays to pre-trial hearings it is unlikely that any trial will take
place in this decade.

In a more recent ruling on older motions made in the case, Judge Pohl
said he would lift restrictions on female guards dealing with the five
defendants in this case, however he would keep the ban in place for the next
six months due to “what he calls
"inappropriate" public criticism of his order by Defense Secretary
Ash Carter and Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the joint chiefs
of staff, during an October appearance before Congress.” The judge said, “These comments were entirely inappropriate. They crossed the
line. Senior military leaders should know better than to make these kinds of
comments in a public forum during an ongoing trial.” A lawyer for one
of the men said that the issue was not about women but the defendants’
religious and cultural sensitivities and could prevent them from meeting their
lawyers or attending court hearings. The 5 defendants are held at the top
secret Camp 7 and have restricted access to other people and have to be
escorted around by special teams.

The Pentagon has proposed new rules for military commissions at
Guantánamo Bay, which include holding hearings via Skype as a set of measures
to ease the process. Holding hearings by teleconferencing would prevent the
need for judges and legal teams to travel to Guantánamo for each hearing. Such
a method may deny the parties a right to a fair hearing and to question the
other side. Other suggestions include allowing civilian lawyers to represent
defendants instead of military lawyers and the main judge in the case being
allowed to appoint another judge to consider certain motions. These measures
are likely to cause further complications and delays to hearings that are
already ongoing. In response, lawyers from the Center for Constitutional Rights
issued the following statement: http://ccrjustice.org/home/press-center/press-releases/ccr-guant-namo-attorneys-denounce-proposed-new-rules-military

Rendition:

The Portuguese Supreme Court has ruled that
ex-CIA agent Sabrina de Sousa, one of 26 people convicted in absentia in Italy
for the 2003 rendition to torture of Milan cleric Abu Omar, must be extradited
to Italy to serve her sentence. She was arrested in Portugal in October 2015 on
a European arrest warrant and was aware she could be extradited to Italy if she
travelled to Europe. De Sousa was sentenced to 6 years in prison. She is to be
sent to Italy to be provided formal notice of her sentence and can serve it in
Portugal. However, de Sousa claims she had nothing to do with the rendition and
was only working as an interpreter for the CIA at the time. Now retired, she
had planned to fly onwards to India to visit her elderly mother.

Although her extradition seems likely, the
victim Abu Omar, now resident in Egypt, has written to the Italian president
Sergio Mattarella asking him to excuse de Sousa, pointing out her age and the
fact that she wishes to see her elderly mother: he stated in his letter that he
was in jail in Egypt (where he was rendered and tortured) when his own mother
died and was not allowed to contact his family and that is why he does not want
Ms de Sousa jailed. Such a response is the perfect antithesis to the US’
revengeful and bloodthirsty “war on terror” and its purported civilised rationale.

In an unprecedented move, a federal judge said
that he would allow a lawsuit against the two psychologists who designed and
implemented the CIA extraordinary rendition programme to progress. The case was
brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of three men, Gul
Rahman, Suleiman Abdullah Salim, and Mohamed Ahmed Ben Soud, who were tortured
under the programme against psychologists, James Mitchell and John “Bruce”
Jessen. The torture was detailed in the 2014 Senate CIA Torture Report. The two
men claimed they could not be prosecuted as the case is a “political question”
for only the executive and legislative to decide and as they were working as
government contractors. Earlier, the US government decided not to apply the
state secrets doctrine, but only that some information would be off limits. Lawyers
in the case now have 30 days to come up with a plan for the disclosure of
relevant information for the case to proceed.

The April Shut
Guantánamo demonstration was on Thursday 7 April. The May demonstration is on 5
May at 12-1pm outside the US Embassy and 1.15-2.15pm outside Speaker’s Corner,
Hyde Park, opposite Marble Arch https://www.facebook.com/events/1605760126411909/

Several activists from
the LGC joined the Guantánamo Justice Campaign (formerly Save Shaker Aamer
Campaign) at a protest outside the US Embassy and Downing Street on 22 April
calling for the closure of Guantánamo, to coincide with Barack Obama’s visit to
the UK. Letters calling for the closure of Guantánamo were sent to the US
Embassy and the prime minister ahead of the protest.

The LGC
(@shutguantanamo) is continuing to hold weekly #GitmObama Twitter storms to
raise awareness about Guantánamo prisoners every Monday at 9pm GMT. The pastebin
is available http://pastebin.com/zpx5F7ab
which is updated weekly with the latest information and tweets to raise
awareness about Guantánamo. Please join us online if you can!

Take action!

We hold a regular monthly demonstration calling for the closure of Guantánamo Bay. Our March demonstration is on Thursday 8 March at 12-2pm outside the US Embassy, 33 Nine Elms Ln, London SW11 7US: https://www.facebook.com/events/975903689224552/

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About Me

The London Guantánamo Campaign has been campaigning since 2006 for the return of all British residents from the Guantánamo Bay prison camp, the release of all prisoners, the closure of this prison and other similar prisons and an end to the practice of extraordinary rendition. Also on Facebook and Twitter.